Delivery Charge: FedEx Electric Trucks

Package Delivery adds electric vehicles:

The CEO of FedEx, Fred Smith, spoke to NPR about the roller coaster price of gasoline and its unpredictable effect on his firm’s bottom line.

Given that Federal Express was founded just before the 1973 Arab Oil embargo, Mr. Smith is keenly aware of how a sharp change in price can derail just about any business-as usual delivery model.

As part of his new business model, Mr Smith is betting on Alternates: Hybrids and full Electrics.

An all-electric pickup and delivery van will operate at a 75 percent less per-mile cost than an internal combustion engine variant,” he says. “Now, I didn’t say 7 1/2 percent — 75 percent.

These are big numbers.”

“I think in three or four years you will have a battery vehicle with a range that’s probably double what it has today — a couple of hundred miles versus a hundred miles — and it’ll probably be 25 percent to 40 percent cheaper than currently is.”

Smith maintains that for the company’s nearly 700 planes, a biofuel, probably produced with algae, will replace much of the current petroleum-based jet fuel. The technology has been proven, but breakthroughs are needed to scale the promising green fuel.